29 June 2005 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 118(2):442-449. 2005. A new species of Lonchophylla Thomas (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae) from Ecuador Luis Albuja V. and Alfred L. Gardner (LAV) Departamento de Ciencias Biologicas, Escuela Politecnica Nacional, Apartado 17-01-2759, Quito, Ecuador, e-mail:
[email protected]; (ALG) USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, P.O. Box 37012, National Museum of Natural History, MRC-111, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, U.S.A., e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract.•We describe Lonchophylla orcesi, sp. nov., from the Choco, a region of high biotic diversity, endemism, and rainfall along the western An- dean slopes and Pacific lowlands of Colombia and Ecuador. One of the largest known Lonchophylla, it occurs sympatrically with at least two other species of Lonchophylla including the similar, but somewhat smaller L. robusta. We also recognize L. concava as a Middle American Province species distinct from L. mordax of Brazil and Bolivia on the basis of cranial and dental features. From 1984 to 1988, personnel represent- below); 7 L. thomasi J. A. Allen, 1904; 3 ing the Department of Biological Sciences L. chocoana Davalos, 2004; and 1 speci- of the Escuela Politecnica Nacional (EPN), men of a species unlike any previously rec- Quito, Ecuador, conducted studies and ognized in Lonchophylla. Several reports made collections of mammals in the humid on additions to the known fauna, descrip- tropical forests of northwestern Ecuador. tions of new species, and the status of con- These forests are the southern terminus of servation in the region, have been published the rain forests of the western Andean or are under preparation (e.g., Albuja & slopes and adjacent Pacific lowlands of Mena 1989, Albuja 1999).